A Chageless Christ in a Changing World

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends.

2 Timothy chapter 2 I want to talk to you tonight about an unchanging Christ in a changing world or the unchanging Christ in a changing world. 2 Timothy 2.13 says, if we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself. An unchanging Christ in a changing world.

Let's bow in prayer. Hallelujah. Lord, we thank you tonight for the warmth, the preciousness of your presence here tonight.

As we just sang, Lord, a few moments ago you have put a new song in our heart. Lord, we don't sing the old song anymore. A new heart always has a new song.

Lord, we thank you for the song that you've given to us. Not a patriotic song. It's not the blues.

It's not the world song. But Lord, we thank you for the song of salvation. The song of a soul set free.

And Lord, we thank you that you are our song. And tonight, I pray that you would open our understanding of who you are. Your unchangeableness.

Hallelujah. Lord, open your word to us, we pray. And then minister to hearts and to needs, we ask.

And then bless us around the communion table. In Jesus' name, amen. I think tonight of a wife, mother of three children, who found it necessary for her mental and spiritual health to separate from her husband for a period of time because of circumstances in their marriage and in his life.

He was no longer the man that she had married. His drinking and a volatile temper made life unbearable for her and at times for her children. But if you were to trace the history of the marriage, the wife would tell you that for the first few years, they had a good relationship.

He seemed to be a good man. But slowly, he began to change. There wasn't another woman.

In fact, in his case, he started hanging out with the boys. He started to drink and started to show many areas of irresponsibility in the marriage. And the fun-loving type that he was during their courtship later turned out to be that he was another personality.

He was cold, he was aloof, he did not communicate. And so the marriage went that way. And you know, many a spouse has married one type of person or courted one type of individual only to find out that he or she was another person in later life.

And you know, it's true, as time progresses, we all change to one degree or another and in one way or another. Some for the good, some for the bad. We talk a lot here about the fact that the Lord is changing us, he's changing his people, and we thank God for that.

But in a congregation, while on one hand, God is at work changing people into his image, there are other people that are also changing but in another direction. Have you ever seen a long-lost friend you've been separated from for years, then you get back together or you work together and you find out that that person has changed, changed drastically, and for the worse. King Saul was not the same man the grown-up David knew when David was a youngster and played the harp for Saul.

You see, Saul, the handsome and at one time well-liked king, became later a jealous tyrant. He changed and God had to chastise him or reject him as a result. Jesus had a whole group of followers who changed just like that.

In John the sixth chapter, it says, after they heard him preach a particular message, the word says that from that point on, they turned back and walked no more with him. They changed just like that. I've seen people do that.

I've seen congregations do that. And then I've seen young people who've left home. They've gone off to college or gone off to pursue a career and they've come back home and something changed them.

And it was evident that either their college life or their academic life or their social life or their environment did something to them. They changed, their thinking changed, their life changed. I've seen especially young people who've grown up in the church and profess to know the Lord have moved somewhere and you later see them come back.

And now I find sometimes that they're like a triple agent. If they're with good Christians, they know the language and so they can talk like a good Christian. If they're with a compromising Christian, on the other hand, they know how to talk their language as well.

And then if they're with a non-Christian, they can act just like them. They have three different sets of clothes. They can wear them all.

But not only do people change, but the world today is changing as never before. Oh, how it's changing. As the 1980s, communism is falling like a deck of cards, like falling dominoes.

In the 1990s, America will go from being the number one economic power in the world to the number three power behind Japan. And an alliance of European nations will be only the third world power. The world is changing.

Technology will continue to increase and make our lives easier on one hand. But on the other hand, some of you may lose your job. You might get replaced by a robot.

Do you know what is going to be the number one gadget new thing in this decade? By the end of this decade. Now, Pastor Phillips will be glad to know this. I understand he said one day he likes gadgets.

Well, how many of you remember, you're old enough to remember, reading years ago about Dick Tracy and his little watch? Well, folks, we've arrived at it now. And in this decade, the new thing is going to be the telephone on your watch. And now not only can you have one in your car if you own one, but now your wife can communicate with you wherever you are.

What a pity. Probably the most frightening change in the decade to come, or decades to come, if Jesus tarries, and I sure hope he doesn't, but one of the most frightening changes will be in what is called biotechnology. This means eventually it will be possible to identify and pick out the genes in the body for virtually any inherited characteristic.

And parents could, for example, arrange to have their embryos or their children programmed with a customized package that corrects genetic defects. And in theory, parents might be able to ensure that their children and their children's children all are six feet tall, have the color of hair that they want, and hazel eyes. Already scientists can identify defective genes in a weak old fetus to know if certain disorders or diseases are present.

And if this biotechnology goes the way that some people fear that it might, we will have on our hands the prospect of a similar thing that Hitler tried to do in seeking to experiment to produce a super race of people. Or we could have monsters that come as a result of biotechnology that are going to reach in now and try to manipulate God's creation. And then there are personal and individual changes that we all experience.

To live is to face changes. And sometimes in your own world you could wake up to what you think is going to be a normal routine day and you get a phone call or you get a letter or you hear some news and suddenly your life and the circumstances in your life are totally changed. You may go to work and find there you have a pink slip.

You may find that you no longer have an apartment to live in or you've got a week's notice or a month's notice. Or there may be a lump that appears in your body or some other physical symptom resulting in potentially life-threatening diseases. You see, to live is to face all kinds of changes.

Now there are some people that love change. They thrive on it. They precipitate it.

And usually this is a restless person who thinks changing their address or changing jobs or changing relationships will change them. But sooner or later you learn as I like to say now and again wherever you go, there you are. And you take yourself with you wherever you go.

And if you think that changing your location is going to change you then you're fooling yourself. But most of us don't like facing drastic changes. Especially when those changes are brought about by the fickleness, the changeableness, the unsteadiness of other people who affect our lives.

Some of the deepest hurts that we can carry comes as a result of important or significant people in our lives who changed. They changed towards us in such a way as to leave us wounded emotionally and spiritually. Now if you don't believe that then consider how long a spouse will put up with an alcoholic or an abusive mate or how other relationships continue in spite of serious problems.

And the reason that there is that there is something in us that doesn't want to give up hope that our loved ones who have changed for the worse somehow, maybe someday will change for the better. And yet often it does not happen. Well I want to tell you there's only one way to live in a changing world.

There's only one way to live in the face of changing people. And that is by embracing the changeless Christ. There is only one way to deal with our own changeableness, our own changeable moods, our own changeable character.

And that is to understand the unchanging character of Jesus Christ. Now of all the attributes of God there is one that is probably least known but is most needed to understand and that is what is called His immutable-ness. Immutability.

It's found only one time in the Bible. However, its truth is revealed in the Godhead throughout Scriptures. Let me read to you one in Hebrews 6, 17.

It says, wherein God, willing more abundant to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. But Revelation 1, 8 states it like this. He says, I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

The immutability is God's crowning attribute and it's the subject of my message tonight. Now, I am glad that God in Christ is the same today as He was yesterday and He will be the same tomorrow as He is today and was yesterday. That's just another way of saying that what the Scripture says in Hebrews, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The crowning glory of God is that He never acts out of character. And that is what Paul writes to us in 2 Timothy 2, 13. It says, even if we believe not, even if we change, yet He abideth faithful.

In other words, He does not change because He cannot deny Himself. He cannot be anything other than what He is. And He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Psalms 102, 26 and 27 says it like this. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, and all of them shall wax old like a garment.

As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. Now you see, once you've met the Lord and get to know Him, you can count on Him remaining always the same.

You see, the Lord always gets better the more we get to know Him. Not because He changes for the better, because He is the same when we first met Him as of now. But, because our capacity to know Him enlarges.

And when you come to a certain knowledge of God and His character, He will never change and become anyone less or different than we've known Him. All of them shall wax old like a garment, and they shall be changed for the worst. But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now do you know what that means? That means that once you come to Him, there will be no clouds of darkness around Him to confuse your mind or to blur your vision or tempt you to imagine things that are not there. If once you have met Him face to face, then you will know what He always is and was and will continue to be. You can depend upon that absolutely and forever.

Malachi 3.6 puts it this way, For I am the Lord, I change not. Psalms 102.27 says, But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. What was it that first drew you to Christ? What was it about Him? Think about that for a few moments.

What was it that first drew you to the Lord? Was it His compassion? Was it His love? Was it His ability to know you and speak to your need? Was it His wonderful promises of the future? Was it the fact that He had the power to be able to take your sinful habits and to be able to destroy them and make a new creature out of you? Well, whatever it was that first drew you to Him, He's still the same tonight. Hallelujah. Isaiah 54.10 says, Though the mountains be shaken and the hills removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.

You see, it's reassuring to know that when we or others are given to change, that He is not. Jeremiah 3.36 asked an interesting question. It says, Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Do you know people that you never know when you see them how they're going to be? You never know they change from one day to the next.

There are people who have tremendous mood swings, tremendous personality change. You never know when you see them and you think, well, are they going to have a good day or are they going to have a bad day? You may have a boss like that. You may have a fellow worker like that.

You may have a relative like that. You may have a wife like that. You may have a husband like that.

You may have a son or daughter like that. And Jeremiah says, Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? But I'm glad to know that when we are given to change, He doesn't change. That's what Paul is saying to Timothy.

It says, If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. Now Paul here is speaking to believers, not to infidels. And he says that if we prove faithless, if we're disloyal, or if we have times when we doubt the Lord or we disbelieve, yet he does not change his character.

He is never disloyal. He still keeps his word. And Paul here is not excusing unbelief.

He is not saying it doesn't matter if we believe or not. Because in verse 12 he says, If we deny him, he also will deny us. But the point the scripture is driving at is that the Lord is not a man or a person such as we are.

Regardless of our changing moods. Regardless of our changing manner or our changing behavior. He always is the same.

He always remains faithful. Psalms 145, 13 says, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he has made. Now, there are two aspects of God's character that I want to point out that never change. Now, there are many aspects, there are many of his attributes, many of his characteristics that we could talk about.

None of them change. But time allows me to mention only two tonight. First of all, God never changes in his love for his children.

Do you remember when you first saw the light and the burden of your heart and your sins rolled away? As you stood before Calvary and you first knew that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for you. Well, just as you knew his love then, so know that today he still loves you like that. He always loves like that.

Even when our hearts change, even when we ourselves get into moods or we ourselves change or we're down or we're faithless. And you may get very impatient with God, but he is always long suffering towards us. And sometimes we get impatient with him because he doesn't come to our rescue, he doesn't grant us our request as we would want them.

And yet, you must know that in spite of that, he does not change in his character and his love. Stand, if you will, before the cross for a moment and you will realize right there, beyond any doubting, that God is love. In him there are no mood changes.

In him there is no phoniness. He is not given to change as we are. Proverbs 24, 21 says, My son, fear thou the Lord and the king and meddle not with them that are given to change.

Don't hang around people that change all the time. Don't get your eyes set on that. Now, to be God, Christ had to stoop down further than any man ever stooped to bear what never a human heart could dream of bearing and to give himself with an abandon of unselfishness that leaves us staring at something almost unbelievable.

You see, God's wisdom is not just wisdom, it is omniscience. His power is not power as we know it, but it is omnipotence. And likewise, his love is a hugeness beyond all human comprehension.

His love is an everlasting calvary. And tonight, when you come to the communion table, let it be a reminder of that moment when you first looked at the cross and you looked at him and you knew that he loved you beyond human comprehension. And I say to you tonight that he still loves you with that same love.

The line of a song comes to my mind, O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. You see, our moods change, our emotions cool. For us, there are seasons of fervor, but there are other seasons of dryness.

Some people are as changeable as the spring weather, but God does not change what we knew him to be during sunshine, he is still during the storm. In fact, I like the way James puts it. James says it like this.

He says, think of the weatherman's best weather day of the year. You know, in New York, every once in a while, they'll come on and they'll rate the top ten weather days of the year. And they'll say, this is number three in the year, the best weather day of the year.

Now, we haven't had any yet in 1990, but we may have some. But think of the best weather day. The temperature is 78 degrees.

The humidity is perfect. And the pollen count is low. And it's noon.

And the sun's rays blaze down in magnificent splendor until every nook and cranny lies saturated and soaked through with sunshine and warmth and light. Ah, but then the sun dips and the shadows lengthen and a cold chill of the evening sets in and soon it's dark. And if you walk on certain New York streets, it's dangerous.

But James says this, God's love is a sun that never sets. Here's how he puts it. Oh, and I love this.

It says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh from the father of lights in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. There's no variation in him. Another translation says he casts no shadow on the earth.

And oh, that we could remember this when darkness comes into your life and the God that we knew and love and serve, in spite of that darkness that comes into your life, he still is the same God of the noonday sun. Shadows may come, but God is never in the shadows. He never hides.

Now sometimes we are quite sure that God is love and then we get one of those letters. We get one of those phone calls. We get one of those knocks on the door.

Or perhaps circumstances weave us a web that is confusing and leaves us dumbfounded. And it's that moment that we begin to doubt and we ask, can it be that the same hands that were pierced for our sins, the same hands that were pierced for our sins and salvation, weaves also this web that I'm caught in? And at that moment, that's when our faith begins to flicker. That's when our faith becomes a smoldering flax and only a flicker of what it once was.

It's then, it's then, that you need to understand the unchangeable character of our God. It's then that we need to understand that whatever or however God meets us, whatever comes our way, we are still dealing with the same Christ that we first met at Calvary. Hallelujah.

If only we could see that whatever comes to us, it is from Him who gave us His Son, His best, His all. It's the same one who sends us that test or that trial. And having sent it does not change Him.

Hallelujah. Having sent it does not mean He changes His character. God is the God of the high noon sun who is Himself never subject to change.

Isaiah 14, 27 says, For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannihilate? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Now listen, Satan may tempt to interrupt God's plan and purpose for your life. And yes, he may even succeed at times. But God's purpose for your development has not changed.

His eternal purposes for you have not moved one iota. Hallelujah. Psalms 33, 11 says, The counsel of the Lord standeth forever.

Psalms 37, 6 says, And He shall bring forth righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Proverbs 19, 21 says, There are many devices in a man's heart, which means that he'll change all the time. There are many devices in a man's heart.

Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Isaiah 46, 10 says, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are yet to be done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Oh, hallelujah.

All throughout Scripture, you'll find this glorious fact about our God and our Lord, that He is not capable of changing. His nature is to love. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And what He started to do when you first saw the light, He wants to complete it tonight. Hallelujah. He hasn't changed.

Now, God is not only unchangeable in His love, but He's also unchangeable in His holy character. You see, Calvary is not only the assurance of God's love, it is the blessed assurance of God's holiness. You see, God is consistent in His love and you and I sure can be glad He is consistent in His holiness.

Now, a lot of the church body doesn't understand this. They don't preach this. They don't get excited about this.

Oh, but I do. You see, the God we see at Calvary is a holy God. He loathes evil and He will make no compromise with sin and cost what it will.

He will hunt it down. He will chase it from this universe and send it into annihilation. Now, it is Satan's tactic to make up rules as he goes along to always try to change the laws to accommodate moral weakness.

That's what Daniel 7.25 says, and he shall preach great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High. And here's how he wears them out. To think to change times and laws.

To think to change times and laws. You see, there is a spirit in the land, an anti-God and an anti-Christ spirit that is constantly changing the moral laws of the society and the moral absolutes, allowing man to have his own way and to live as he pleases. You see, we always, we always, society is always trying to change the laws to accommodate itself to the moral weakness of man.

And the more people cry out for it, the more the politicians give in to it. For example, it is wearing, it is wearing on saints to think that the abortion laws have not changed and that even though a recent Supreme Court decision limiting abortion has resulted in the greatest outcry for pro-choice and pro-murder of the unborn. In fact, no politician today has, not many, very few have the courage to run on a anti-abortion platform.

Our society wants it and evidently God is going to let them have it because that's what they want. He's going to judge them according to, of course he's going to judge them for it. Almost everything that we hold sacred has been desecrated by government laws.

For example, the Sabbath day is no longer a holy day. It's a holiday. Prayer in school is no longer a right, it's a wrong.

Teaching of Genesis creation is a mockery in the educational system. It's just a laughing stock. And if you think the right to life has been taken from us, wait until the right to die people get their way.

In the not too distant future, the weak, the feeble, the elderly, the unwanted, the mentally ill will be legally murdered. Laws that will probably be what's going to happen in the decade of the 90s. But listen to me.

Regardless of these chaotic social changes in our society, the God who I serve has everything under control and he has not changed. His law and his holiness remain as it always was. And you see, that is our hope.

The power behind things is stubbornly set on righteousness. They shall change, but thou remain us the same. And he remains the same not only in his love, but he remains the same in his opposition to evil.

Daniel 2.44 says in the time of those kings, that's these days, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. You see, think not that the world is some haphazard place so spun out of control that God wrings his hands wondering what to do with the madness of mankind.

No, it still remains the same. We know that sin is to fling oneself against a holy God. Evil is still insanity, leading one sooner or later to inevitable punishment.

That's a fact that you can set on your minds and as the expression goes, you can take it to the bank. You see, just ask the Romanians today if truth and justice does not triumph over dictatorship and tyranny. But I want to tell you, there's a greater day of righting wrong that is coming, not to just Eastern Europe or to Russia, but to the whole world.

2 Thessalonians 2, 6 says, And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.

And then the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord, listen, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. You see, behind everything, every changing evil that the wicked one is able to promote in our society, it doesn't matter in one sense because we remain confident that there is a power which holds it all in check and God will show himself at his appointed time and the Lord will blast Satan with the breath of his mouth, hallelujah, and his kingdom will be standing. But we must remember, bringing it to a personal level in light of God's unchangeable holiness and character is that he makes no exceptions to his holy character.

You see, the Bible warns us not to think of God as man does. We sometimes get the foolish notion that God is like us, that sometimes he's better, sometimes he's worse, some days he's kind-hearted, some days he's forgetful, and that he has a casual outlook on our backsliding or our wavering. And it would be a grave mistake to think that way.

God who is holy will always be holy and to assume that God is somehow inconsistent and he overlooks things that we are too tolerant of and that he makes certain exceptions and that he will do so in our case and that his laws are like, they're not really laws, they're just suggestions. You know, it's like the 55-mile speed limit. You know, it's kind of like a suggestion.

But to assume that, to assume that when you look at God's word and God's law is to not understand that God is unchangeable in his attitude towards our sin and our unfaithfulness. You see, God has no favorite sons or daughters. He's not like parents sometimes who have, sometimes unconsciously have a favorite child that they let slip by with certain things.

I was always accused of that because I was the youngest in the family, always got it, said, you get away with so many things. And I did. But God has no favorite sons.

He does not have one set of rules as parents do for the not so favorite child and a less restricting set for the favorite child. God never lets go of his holiness. He never stoops to carnal favoritism.

Have you ever been to a funeral where a sinner has been made to look like a saint? And the preacher bends all the rules and all the holy word to proclaim the deceased a place in heaven? I was at a funeral one time for a tragic young man who had committed suicide. And I wanted to stand up. I wanted to stand up in the middle of a message and tell that pastor, you're deceiving these people, deceiving them.

He said the man was with God. I was at another funeral and I looked into the casket of a man that had left a trail of hurt people in a dozen states. Everything he touched he hurt and he killed and he wounded, not physically but emotionally and spiritually.

And yet the relatives looked on and they comforted themselves by saying, well, at least he's not suffering anymore. Well, the truth of the matter was those he left behind weren't suffering any longer. But you see, we need not concern ourselves with the dead but with the living.

And when it touches our own loved ones, we're apt to not believe that God is holy. And we feel that his moral laws are bendable and they'll sway on our behalf. And we think God is too kind and loving and good natured to mean what he says.

But no, no, a thousand times no, God is unchangeable. He cannot deny himself. If we deny him, he will also deny us.

Are you aware of things that need to be made right? Then make them right and don't delay. Don't fall back to sleep when the alarm goes off feeling that God will find a way to avoid his solemn words and let you off the hook. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God.

Now there's one last thing that I want to talk about and I want you to go to Joshua chapter 21. There's one last but glorious thing that I want to talk about about God's unchangeable character. Not only is he unchangeable in his love on one hand and unchangeable in his holiness on the other hand, but he's also unchangeable in his word and in his promises to us.

God's word to us will never change. While you're turning to the 21st chapter, and I'll tell you the verse in a moment, but let me read to you Matthew 5, 18. It says, It says, Now that's bad news for the lawbreaker, but that's good news for the obedient.

2 Corinthians 1, 20, You see, the unchangeable Christ wants to fulfill his will and his promises to us. What the Lord started in us, he is committed to finish. And I tell you, oh, this scripture, I love this scripture.

It's Philippians 1, 6. He that hath begun a good work in you will, if you let him, perform it and keep on performing it until the day of Jesus Christ. Listen, it cost him too much to save you and to provide for your salvation. It cost too high a price for you not to finish what he began.

His original purposes for you and me never will change. Hallelujah. You may be unfaithful.

You may deny him. And in the end, if you deny him, he will have to deny you. But it still does not change the fact that his original purposes in you, for you, have not changed.

Hallelujah. In Deuteronomy 1, 9, he said it, to a thousand generations. Hallelujah.

And then here's Joshua 21, 45. This is what wants to make me shout. Joshua 21, 45.

Not a word of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel failed. All came to pass. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Paul said it a little differently. He said, he that hath begun a good work in you wants to perform it.

He wants to bring it all to pass, everything that is promised. And some of you, you've started out. You once believed that.

But somehow you've let go of that promise. I want you to know the Lord hasn't changed. Tonight, he hasn't changed.

And tonight, there are some people, you've been going through changes in your life and it's affected you spiritually and emotionally. And God wants to reach out to you by your spirit tonight. And some of you must admit that you've changed.

You've changed in a way that is not a forward look, but it's a backward look. There's been spiritual decay and deterioration that has set in and you've changed for the worse, but God's calling you back to him tonight. And then if you're a person here tonight that's given to change, you're given quickly to change to different moods, mood swings, personality changes.

God wants to settle you. He wants to establish you. He wants to move you into the very center of his will.

He doesn't want you moving this way or moving out different swings or having times when you make great, great, tremendous promises to the Lord and can't fulfill them. Or other times when you're ready to deny your faith. The Lord doesn't want you to swing that way.

He wants you to swing right in the center of his will. May God minister that to your heart tonight. Shall we pray? Shall we stand together in prayer? Mood swings, personality changes.

God wants to settle you. He wants to establish you. He wants to move you into the very center of his will.

He doesn't want you moving this way or moving out different swings or having times when you make great, great, tremendous promises to the Lord and can't fulfill them. Or other times...